Exigency To End Child Labour.

Anti-Child Labour Day being observed around the world on June 12 and is meant to evoke a greater realisation and a firm resolve to save children from the tragic loss of their childhood. The day, not only has a more vibrant theme to assert Universal Social Protection but also a special significance as it just follows the seance of the Fifth Global Conference on Child Labour and the International Labour Organisation, held last month at Durban. They agreed to enhance the commitment and endeavours to eliminate this curse but rising armed conflicts, environmental apocalypse and ensuing food and employment fiascos, threaten to reverse years of progress. The exigency to end child labour is imperative as about 160 million children around the world-72 million in Africa and 62 million in Asia and the Pacific-are still trapped in this tribulation. About 8.4 million of them have been drawn in during the last four years while nine million more may be dragged by the severe economic impact caused by Covid19.

Even in Pakistan, over 12 million-or one out of every five children-is involved in some form of child labour. Their number, unfortunately, has not only increased over the years but even the median age of the kids forced to labour as per some estimates of the Pakistan's Human Rights Commission, also decreased, drawing in more tender age souls. About half of the eleven million children working in the 1990s, for instance, were under ten years of age but it dropped to under eight in 1994 and fell still further to under seven workers in 1996. The age in some industries like the carpet weaving, was even lower. As per UNICEF figures in 1996, half to one million children between the ages of four to fourteen were employed in them.

Brick kilns engaging about 4.5 million children are yet another grueling concern. The list in fact, ranges from forced domestic toil to textiles, footwear, furnaces, foundries and fireworks. They are also involvement in begging, child trafficking, sexual exploitation, and plying and as an oblivious and unwilling tool, in various illicit and hasardous pursuits. The cost to the children of this drudgery is evidently far more tragic as they are deprived of not merely the bliss and charm of their childhood but also the avenues of their education, proper training, sports, social interaction and hence the growth, bounty and the bloom of their real talent and potential. Longer hours, isolation from family and friends affect their dignity...

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